I’m hardly an expert, but I understand it could take 15-20 years of a flying career before you reach the point of being a “first-year captain” at a major airline (the first column in this chart).
Yes, exactly. Expect to spent at least 10 years as a first officer before getting a shot at Captain. I’d wager that Covid has pushed that out to 15 years. I have family and friends who are pilots, and the landscape is brutal with yearly pay rises falling far short of inflation in a lot of cases, and bonuses being minimal or non existent for the last few years